Wattle Health Australia Ltd (ASX:WHA) has started work to build Australia’s first dedicated organic nutritional milk spray dryer through its joint venture Corio Bay Dairy Group Pty Ltd.
Corio Bay, which provides the market with an ongoing supply of organic nutritional milk powder, is a joint venture between Organic Dairy Farmers of Australia Ltd (ODFA), Niche Dairy Pty Ltd and Wattle.
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The spray dryer will be constructed on purchased land adjacent to ODFA’s facilities in Geelong.
This will enable Corio Bay to leverage both ODFA’s existing infrastructure and human resources, reducing costs for the initial build and for ongoing operations post-commissioning.
Corio Bay is on track to complete work in the third quarter of next year, with commissioning and first product due ahead of spring.
Significant economies of scale
Wattle will have first rights to all products made by Corio Bay for use in Wattle’s nutritional diary range, resulting in Wattle being Australia’s first and only vertically integrated organic nutritional dairy company.
Along with access to organic milk powder through the joint venture, Wattle will also achieve significant economies of scale.
ODFA controls around 75% of all fresh organic milk in the Australian market and is the only Australian organic farmers’ co-operative, putting Wattle in a leading position to capture the growing market both domestically and internationally through the strategic joint venture.